The present invention relates to a database system for preserving and reusing multimedia data such as video, audio, and animation and more particularly to cm efficient retrieval method and retrieval system using the multimedia database.
The following are typical examples of the prior art relating to retrieval of a multimedia database.
(1) Video on demand (VOD) service as a service for a CATV contract household
For example, descriptive attribute information of the entire title such as title name, distribution company, and actors and actresses are given to one video movie and this attribute information is stored, for example, in a relational database in a tabular form. According to the request (query) from a viewer, information among this attribute information which coincides with the conditions are displayed on the viewer screen in a tabular form or a visual form and the viewer selects the desired title from them. A respect that the retrieval unit has a large granularity at the unit of title is a characteristic of this kind of art.
(2) For example, an OMF (open media framework) interchange specification (Version 2.0) which is one of the replacement forms of contents during creation in the multimedia contents creation field is proposed.
During creation of one multimedia content comprising composed video data and audio data, a model in which a plurality of tracks are defined for video and audio is used. Each track also comprises a plurality of video sources so that a video A appears until a certain time and a video B follows it thereafter. Namely, elements such as video and audio constituting a multimedia title can be operated independently.
Particularly, in the OMF interchange specification, history information can be expressed, for example, as a source from which an element (for example, a part of video data) to be incorporated into a certain title is created at the preceding stage, or such as for example, a video tape having recorded video is captured and fetched at a particular compression rated.
However, in the OMFIS, an effective retrieval function for video and audio and a realization method thereof are not disclosed.